Hong Kong reports two Covid related deaths, first since September

Hong Kong reported two deaths in Covid-positive patients, the first fatalities in the city since September, as a record outbreak overwhelms hospitals and testing resources. 

A 73-year-old man who had received two doses of Sinovac Biotech Ltd.’s vaccine in September died Tuesday, and an unvaccinated 76-year-old man died on Wednesday, health officials said in a statement. Both men had chronic illnesses. 

Hong Kong is battling to contain an unprecedented outbreak that’s pushed its health system to the brink. The city had managed to live for months with no local transmission due to onerous anti-virus measures -- including flight bans, up to 21 days of quarantine and mandatory hospital admission -- but the arrival of the more-transmissible omicron risks shattering its steadfast push for Covid Zero. 

Public hospitals are being overwhelmed, with cases almost doubling in one day to a record 1,161, forcing officials to ask people who have tested positive not to go to emergency units. While most hospitalized cases are still mild in Hong Kong because the dominant variant is omicron, a breakdown in health-care resources has invariably presaged a wave of death in most countries through the pandemic’s history. 

Authorities are especially concerned about its large elderly population, with only about half of residents aged 70 and above receiving a first dose so far. The virus has now been found in more than 10 aged-care facilities. 

The explosive rise in case numbers has prompted a series of U-turns from the government, including a request for anyone with mild Covid-like symptoms to go to a private doctor to get tested, rather than go to emergency departments in public hospitals to have their diagnosis confirmed. The city has also seen long lines of people snaking through a growing number of neighborhoods to be tested at community facilities due to compulsory notices. 

“We are deeply sorry and uneasy that many citizens have to wait for a long time to be sampled for nucleic acid testing, and many citizens who have tested positive have to wait for a long time” to enter the isolation facility, Chief Executive Carrie Lam wrote in a Facebook post late Wednesday. The authorities “are doing their best and are constantly seeking ways and additional support to enhance their capabilities,” she said. 

Hong Kong’s toughest ever restrictions come into effect Thursday, including an unprecedented limit on multi-family gatherings in homes and other private venues, as well as a return to a two-person limit for public gatherings. It will also expand the list of venues where entry is limited to those who are vaccinated to shopping malls, food markets and hair salons in a system that starts Feb. 24. 

In addition to targeting socializing -- with gatherings during last week’s Lunar New Year holiday blamed for the exponential increase in infections -- authorities have also needed to loosen some other health measures. 

Previously, all infected patients, even those without symptoms, were kept in hospital isolation wards for weeks but now mild cases are being moved out to the government-run Penny’s Bay camp. Close contacts can isolate at home, despite the higher risk of spread that these laxer measures pose, and a turnaround from a previous policy that saw them taken to a quarantine facility. 

(Bloomberg)